St Bedes/Mentone Tigers lead from start to finish taking the vital 4 points in its Round 13 clash against Old Scotch at Brindisi St. As the luncheon crowd spilled out onto the terraces still chuckling from the recollections of guest speaker, St Kilda legend Kevin “Cowboy” Neale, the Tigers engaged in an arm wrestle for most of the first quarter. Paul Wintle was taking telling marks in defence, Pat Kean was both delivering the ball into the forward line and finishing beautifully, and Luke Terrell was marking strongly enabling the home side to take an 8 point advantage into the first break.
The game broke open in the second quarter with the Tigers kicking 8 goals to 2. Old Scotch’s inaccuracy in front of goal was costly, while the Tigers were able to finish their good work with goals from Michael Curcio, Paul Wintle, big Blake McGrath and George Rowlands. When Darcy Holden got on the end of a brilliant coast to coast ball movement and goal, the Tiger faithful roared into life, delighted with a 7 goal margin at the long break.
After the break, Scotch came out firing but the Tiger defence stood tall with Pat Tyquin proving a constant road block for the Scotchies and Simon and Chris Richards working hard in the tight spaces. The Camberwell team closed the gap to exactly 5 goals at orange time, but with the moist and now somewhat dark conditions, it looked a bridge too far for the visitors.
And so it came to be as the Tigers finished the stronger. Debutant Brett Denton was impressive on debut; giving the Tigers another option in the middle while Pat Kean continued with his breakout form to earn the Man of the Match award from the 96.5 Inner FM team. The 7 goal win lifts the Tigers up another spot, adds some percentage, and some hard earned space between them and the dreaded relegation zone.
The undermanned but competitive Reserves were outplayed by Old Scotch while showing definite signs of improvement. The U19 Red (Premier) team beat Uni Blacks to cement a spot in the four and the U19 Blue (South) team just nosed out local rivals Parkdale Vultures to be 6 points clear in fourth spot.
Next week the Seniors and Reserves are at Elsternwick Park on Sunday, 5th August. The Senior match commences at 1:20pm and entry is free. The Sunday match provides a great opportunity for all supporters to join us at the Ladies Luncheon, 12 noon at Brindisi St on Saturday 4th August.